


At Your Touch

by KattyWolfShark



Series: Haphephobia [1]
Category: Game Grumps
Genre: Dating, Eventual Smut, F/M, PTSD, Romance, Slow Build, Swearing, past trauma, slow healing
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-07-20
Updated: 2015-07-20
Packaged: 2018-04-10 05:14:06
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,666
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4378607
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/KattyWolfShark/pseuds/KattyWolfShark
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>I'd managed to avoid this for so long, but things were starting to unravel as Dan slowly broke down the walls I had built. The scariest part of it was that I was letting him. Letting him pull me from the hiding place I'd constructed within myself. His warmth surrounded me, and I felt at peace with him.</p>
            </blockquote>





	At Your Touch

**Author's Note:**

> I've been working on this a while now. Originally it was a Danny/Reader piece, but I created an OC instead because I feel it reads better this way. The OC specifics are that she's 5'6", 125 pounds, is 28, and has long brown hair with hazel eyes. Anyway, this is gonna be a long and bumpy ride, so strap in!

“Welcome back to Butt Lumps. We should probably get those checked out – “

“SHIT! FUCKIN’ GAME!!!”

“Jesus, Arin, right off the bat? Now that’s a strong start if I ever saw one. Syd, make this a cold open will ya? Thanks baby gurl.”

I shook my head, chuckling quietly at the footage I was editing, making a note of Dan’s request as I listened. Sometimes it didn’t feel much like work as much as it did getting paid to watch entertaining shenanigans. Which I guess was an accurate job description.

This really was one of the best jobs I’d had, though I’d only been with the Game Grumps for about a year. I joined just as Jon was getting ready to leave in 2013, just before Dan’s arrival. I did like Jon; he was a swell dude, but sometimes his screeching was on par with Arin’s and together it seemed like they could break glass. Dan’s mellowness was soothing, and when he did get excited during filming it was nowhere near the insanity it had been with Jon. He fit the Not-So-Grump persona a bit better, in my opinion.

I winced as Arin’s screaming blasted through my headset and turned down the volume a bit. ‘ _RIP headphone users…_ ’ I thought to myself as I tweaked the audio to be a little less intense, thinking of the lovelies. ‘ _I’ll do what I can, but this rage cannot be contained_.’

As I adjusted the sound, I was suddenly aware of my name being repeated like a chant from behind me.

“Sydney. Hey Sydney. Syyyyyyyyyd. Neeeeeey. Yo Syd. Hey.”

I twisted in my chair, pulling my headset down around my neck as I did so and raising my eyebrow at the man across the room. “You been doing that a while, Ross?”

He grinned impishly, blue eyes twinkling. “Maybe.” He smirked. “You go into a weird zone when you edit and it’s so much fun to needle you while you’re oblivious.” 

I rolled my eyes. He was one of the bigger man-children of the office when it came to fucking with coworkers. “Uh-huh. Did you need something? Or did ya just want to see how long it’d take to make my name sound weird when said aloud?”

“Actually my pestering has a purpose.” He said, raising a finger. “Suzy and I are running in a few minutes to grab some White Castle. You want a burger?”

At the mention of food my stomach yawned; I’d been so intently focused on my work that I’d forgotten to eat. “That actually sounds awesome.” I admitted, grabbing my purse to root around for cash. “Double cheeseburger with just cheese and a side of fries, por favor.” I tossed a folded up five dollar bill over the top of Arin’s monitor so it landed on Ross’s desk. He scooped it up with an over-exaggerated flourish.

“Will do, yo,” he called over his shoulder as he exited the office.

I turned back to my computer to resume my editing. The first thing I noticed was a mop of dark brown hair resting on the top of my monitor, flopping over on the screen. Oh. The Grump Session must have ended.

“Hey Dan,” I deadpanned, not even surprised. He giggled boyishly and raised his head to rest his chin where his forehead had previously been, sticking his tongue out at me. ‘ _Goofball._ ’ I thought to myself, shaking my head with a smile at the older man’s antics.

“Hey Sydney,” he said happily, his brown eyes bright and excited. ‘ _Ugh. Stop being cute._ ’

“Did you need something?” I asked. “’Cuz Ross already interrupted me and I gotta get like, five more of these edited.” He lifted away from where he was leaning on my computer and came around the side of my desk, leaning his lanky frame on the side of it, one huge hand resting in a clear space between the numerous Marvel Pop dolls that littered the surface.

“Actually yeah. I wanted to know if you’re gonna be free to see a movie later, but I guess you just answered my question if you’ve only got five more of these to go.” He said with a nod at my screen.

I chewed my lip and fiddled with my mouse. “That’s really just a rough estimate,” I admitted. “I’ve got five more for this series, but then there’s the Steam Train backlog that’s gotta get done – “

“I got it, Sydney,” Barry spoke up from his desk across the office, making me jump. He was so quiet sometimes I forgot he was there. “Just put the files on the Storm Trooper flash-drive and bring it over before you leave.”

“Thanks, Bar!” Danny said enthusiastically before I could reply. “I’m gonna make extra sweet lovin’ to that butt when I get home tonight.” He crooned, wagging his eyebrows in the other man’s direction.

“Be gentle with me, Senpai,” came Barry’s voice in a fake simper.

“Whoa boys, keep the dirty talk out of the office,” I teased before returning to Dan and I’s conversation. “So now that my alibi is dead, what movie were you thinking about?”

“Uhhh, I actually haven’t even fuckin’ looked at the listings….” He confessed sheepishly, running a hand through his fluffy hair before looking down at my desk as if in thought. He suddenly looked up at me excitedly. “Oooh wait, didn’t the new Captain America just come out recently? How about that?”

I laughed; he’d clearly noticed my Pop figurine of Cap sitting near one of my speakers. “Sounds awesome, dude. I’d really like that.” I smiled up at him, giggling internally when he seemed to get a bit flustered. “All right, then it’s a date – whoops!” As he spoke he had swept the hand resting on my desk forward, knocking a Deadpool figure off the top. In a knee-jerk reaction we both reached for it at the same time, my hand catching it before his. Momentum kept him going forwards though, and his long-fingers wrapped around my hand.

I yanked back as if burned; he released my hand immediately and looked at me apologetically.

“Shit – sorry Syd,” he fretted. “The touch thing – I gotta watch where I’m flailing these gangly things.” He stuffed his hands in his pockets and rocked back on his heels a bit, looking embarrassed and slightly worried.

The blood was roaring in my ears and my face was no doubt flushed. I gripped the figurine tight before setting it back in its place, careful to keep my hands from shaking. “N-No harm done,” I said with forced cheer. “I should probably get a shelf to organize these things on anyway…”

A resounding belch suddenly broke the tension between us as Arin entered the room, turning our awkward stares away from each other.

“Christ, Arin, really? Now the whole damn room’s gonna smell like death,” Dan lamented, perhaps a bit louder than he should have. Arin shot a double-bird in his direction in response.

“Bite me, asshole. At least I didn’t unleash that demon while you were trapped in the Grump room with me.” He said in mock outrage while rubbing his stomach. The ends of his moustache turned up in a devilish grin. “Maybe I should just blast you straight in the face with the next one – “

“I’d really fuckin’ appreciate it if you didn’t, dude.” Danny said quickly, raising his hands in a pleading gesture.

Glad for the distraction, I pulled my headphones back up and started to resume the project I had been working on before all the intrusions, but Danny looked back down at me as if he were going to say something. I pushed one earphone to the side and looked at him expectantly.

“So, uh, movie later?” He ventured tentatively, as if my response to his touch had been a rejection of the idea. I suddenly felt bad for my overreaction; it wasn’t fair to Danny to be so twitchy about that sort of thing, regardless of the feelings it had elicited…

“Yeah,” I said, flashing him a grin. “Winter Soldier. You should probably go look up movie times while I finish these up.”

A relieved smile slid across his face. “Rad. Cool. Date four in T-minus… however long until the next showing.” He said happily, heading over to his desk as I laughed.

“You guys are fuckin’ gaaaaaaay,” Arin said mockingly as he flopped down at his chair, only to rocket out of his seat as Suzy and Ross entered the room holding bags. “Holy shit, is that White Castle?”

“No, fuck off.” Ross said flatly, placing the plainly labeled White Castle bags on the main table in the kitchen. Arin rushed to the pile, searching for his order while casting an evil glare at the Australian.

Suzy giggled and grabbed a bag, heading over to my desk and handing it to me. “One boringly plain burger, right here,” She teased. I fake scowled as I dug into the bag.

“Leave me alone; I like my food simple.” I grumbled, fishing out a few fries and devouring them. She laughed again and went back to the table to rescue her own burger from Arin.

I adjusted my headset and finally hit play on the footage still on my screen, digging into my food as I resumed my editing. Dan was at the back of my mind though, the date looming just above. This would be our fourth date and we were practically steady at this point; everything with him was wonderful. But I knew for this relationship to really progress, at some point I was going to have to get over certain things and allow some form of physical contact to happen…

‘ _Don’t think about that right now,_ ’ I told myself, taking a bite of my burger and focusing back on the yelling and the dick jokes that flowed through my headset, keeping an ear out for requests. ‘ _One step at a time. Everything will play out just fine._ ’

I hoped.


End file.
